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David Phillips
Editor and ChiefDavid Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.
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iRacing.com Series WriterChris Hall has been writing since the nineties and moved into motorsports reporting in 2005, covering series such as ALMS, British GT, FIA GT, Le Mans and 2CV racing for Full Throttle magazine, Motorsport.com, The-Paddock.net, GTGateway.com, L' Endurance and, of course, inRacingNews. During 2008 and 2009, he worked with the RSS Performance Porsche Carrera Cup Team (and former British GT(C) champions) as a data engineer for a variety of drivers and models of 997s.
Jameson Spies
Contributing Writer19 years old, Jameson Spies lives in Quartz Hill, California. He grew-up surrounded by racing. His mother raced late models throughout Southern California while his father built and setup the car. Not surprisingly, Jameson began racing go-karts at the age of 13, and is now racing Spec Trucks at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has a passion about all forms of racing and hopes to make a career out of it.
Jason Lofing
iRacing.com Series WriterJason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.
Tim Terry
Contributing WriterTim Terry, aka the voice of Maritime stock car racing, fell in love with sim racing in 2004 after he joined the Sim Racing Network crew as a pit reporter. From October 2004 to SRNtv’s closure in June 2007, he’s covered prestigious races and leagues such as the Online 500, FLM Fall 400, Real Racing Online and the DMP Racing League – each as the lead broadcaster for the company. At the same time the wheels started to turn in another direction as he began announcing stock car racing locally. Terry became the assistant announcer at Scotia Speedworld in May 2007 and took over full duties in May 2009 when long-time voice Mike Kaplan retired from the track. Terry also became the series voice of the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour in ’09 and continues to hold down both posts in 2011. He has also announced races for the Pro All Stars Series, Atlantic Open Wheel and Maritime League of Legends tours and has called races at six different Atlantic Canadian tracks. Terry can be heard online at WebRacingNetwork.com, RLMtv.com and OLRtv.com covering sim races. He also makes occasional appearances on PSRtv.com. In addition to inRacingNews, his articles and columns can be read on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca, MaritimeProStockTour.com and his own website at timterryonline.com.
David Allen
Contributing WriterNorth Carolina born and raised with over 15 years of computer/IT experience, I combine two of my biggest hobbies -- racing and technology -- here at inRacingNews. In my spare time I run a Nascar fan site and cure my own need for speed riding atvs. If it involves technology or racing I'll be there, but combine the two and I'll be looking a front row seat. Stop by and say hello anytime!
Allen Krier
Contributing WriterAllen was born in West Palm Beach, Florida but grew up in Atlanta and attended Georgia College and State University where he received a BS in Information Systems. Currently a resident of Albany, GA, he started sim racing in 2008 while in college when iRacing was first released to the public. Since then, Krier has been a two time iRacing Pro Series driver (2009 and 2010), picking up one Pro Series win at Daytona in ‘09. Besides sim racing, Allen’s other hobbies include RC Car racing as well as “attending and watching any sporting event that I can including going to the local dirt track.
Whitmarsh: DRS a success at Spa
August 29th, 2011
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh has rejected suggestions that the DRS made overtaking at Spa too easy, and believes it created just the right level of entertainment in the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Kemmel Straight after Eau Rouge was chosen as the DRS zone for the race, and saw plenty of passing throughout the field – with drivers ahead finding it hard to successfully defend against their pursuers.
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali suggested that because drivers were already close behind rivals through Eau Rouge, the DRS effect was multiplied and made overtaking a foregone conclusion.
“What we have seen with DRS was not expected to be honest because I saw a lot of people behind that were able to catch the tow of the front car already at Eau Rouge, so they were able to close up at Eau Rouge and arrive at [the] DRS [zone] very, very close to that, so I think they were not expecting a recovery like that in Eau Rouge, so today it seems to be quite easy to use DRS while some other times it was too difficult,” said Domenicali.
But Whitmarsh remains convinced that the level of overtaking prompted by the DRS at Spa was in line with what Formula 1 fans wanted.
“I think overall people want it and go back – FOTA did the most extensive fan survey and whether I believe it or want to believe it, the fans wanted more overtaking and if you have done the survey and the fans tell you that is what they want, then I think you are fairly arrogant if you ignore it. So we responded,” he said.
Whitmarsh also pointed out that there were still plenty of spectacular passes even though the DRS made slipstreaming moves very straightforward, highlighting his driver Jenson Button’s charge from 13th on the grid to third.
“Jenson did some mighty overtaking around the outside and from a long way back and for the fans it was fairly spectacular,” said Whitmarsh.
He added: “People talk wondrously of 35 years ago, slipsteaming at Monza, before my time, and people seemed to like that so DRS worked well.”
The McLaren chief also feels that it is 2011 additions like DRS that are keeping the season interesting in spite of Sebastian Vettel’s championship domination.
“Anyone who wonders about DRS and KERS and criticises it, I think [the devices] undoubtedly contributed to the show,” said Whitmarsh.
“So first and foremost, the championship is interesting to a lot but actually we have to put on a spectacular show. Sample the last five races, they were all gripping races and this one must have been fantastic, the cars looked great, there was plenty of overtaking.
“We are immersed as full time professionals in F1 and obsessed by championships, but I think the punter that watches on television wants a great show and we are doing that. I would rather it was a great show with some silver and red cars at the front buit we are working on that.”